Marilyn is correct in attributing the popularity of abstract art to a phenomenon of self-deception, but her reader's choice of Pablo Picasso as an example was a poor one.
On October 15, 2000 Marilyn responded to a reader who could not see why Pablo Picasso was considered one of the great artists of this century based on the works he has seen. Marilyn responded with a parable based on the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen.
You may remember the tale from your childhood. An emperor was approached by two tailors who said that they could make him a suit of clothes of surpassing beauty, and the emperor decided to try them. The tailors asked for hundreds of pounds of thread made of silver and gold, shut themselves up for weeks, and finally came forward with a suit made of cloth so fine that it would be invisible to anyone who was stupid and incompetent. The emperor could not see the suit but he did not want to admit that he was stupid and incompetent, so he decided to put it on. Once they were informed that only those who were not stupid and incompetent could see the suit, all of the emperor's ministers raved about it. The emperor believed that they could see it and was disturbed that he was the only one who was stupid and incompetent. He decided to give a parade so that all of his subjects could admire the new suit.
At the parade a child cried out what all of the spectators saw but were afraid to admit: that the emperor was naked. The emperor and all the others realized that the suit did not exist. The tailors were long gone, and of course all the thread of silver and gold was in the suit.
Marilyn implies that although the works of Pablo Picasso really are ugly, no one wants to admit it for fear that they will be considered ignorant of the qualities of fine art. Although this may apply to artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, I think that if you study some of Picasso's early works you will come to agree that he really was a great artist, "gone astray," if you like.
Not only was Pablo Picasso's father an art teacher, but he had a conservatory training in art. When he finished his formal education he joined the "starving artist" community in Paris and made a reputation with his works in the conventional style. Some of these, painted between 1892 and 1905, are depicted below. Picasso did not invent abstract art. The first abstract style he adopted was cubism. The pioneer cubist painting is considered to be Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase," and it started a fad. Remember that Picasso did not have a wealthy patron. He lived in a garret and took his paintings to Montmartre to sell. A sale meant food on the table. Picasso did not necessarily create abstract art because he believed in it, he did it in order to survive. To judge Pablo Picasso you should examine the full range of his output. If you find that you can enjoy some of it, just ignore the rest.
The images below represent favorites from various early periods of Picasso's career: the classical period, the blue period, and the rose period. These were followed by a cubist period, which was derivative of Duchamp, and several styles of abstract art that were original with Picasso. The painting at the top of the page represents Picasso's style most criticized by those who are not afraid to say that the emperor is naked. It makes more sense, though, if you realize that it is a political protest. It depicts the destruction of the Catalonian town of Guernica by German bombers during the Spanish Civil War. It was a terrorist attact against a non-military objective. Picasso was from this area and the incident had special meaning for him. If you get the impression of disorientation, terror, and body parts flying here and there, then Picasso was successful. If you like, you can view Picasso's other works in this style as a contituation of a protest against this type of atrocity, which was to be repeated three years later against the city of Rotterdam. There is a large amount of literature on this painting, and some critics try to point out hidden images.
Information on these paintings such as their title and where they may be found may be gotten from The Online Picasso Project. The file name gives the year in which they were painted. The last one, 05-2.jpg is entitled "La Famille des Salambiques" and is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. It is clickable for greater detail.
